Wait and See
by Appuru
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke never believed in ghosts. That is, until he met one, by the name by Uzumaki Naruto... [AU, SasuNaru[HIATUS]
1. What Your Eyes Make Believe

Well. Hey there minna-sama! Sinful Serenity has decided to finally make her contribution to the Naruto fandom (Quick! To the bomb shelters!) with the plot line of a story she was originally going to write for Kingdom Hearts. It was originally going to be rated PG-13, but then I kind of consider this a _extremely _soft R; character death, alcoholic fun, silver-haired perverts and all of that lovely stuff.

So yeah. Besides this irritatingly long introduction, the story itself won't be many chapters at all. Sinful prefers writing one-shots, so her stories tend to be 'clipped'. She's estimating 3-4 chapters for this one, at best.

…Yes, she speaks in third person. Don't ask.

**Warnings:**

1) Sinful Serenity has an awful habit of plotting out her stories but forgetting to update for weeks on end. Gasp.

2) This will eventually contain some measure of yaoi material. In case you don't know, that means guy-on-guy action. As of the next few chapters, it's all normal—best friends sort of thing—maybe shounen-ai if you're a hopeless romantic and you squint. Like me.

3) S.S. will do her best to keep characters…in character. Forgive her if they sound crapped up.

**Disclaimer**: I've got… a couple pieces of lint and a piece of an M & M…sure you don't want those? It's all I own.

-

**. W A I T . A N D . S E E .**

By _Sinful Serenity_

Act 1—What Your Eye Makes Believe

-

To say that Uchiha Sasuke was a happy camper would be the equivalent to calling your pet dog Neko-chan.

In easily understood language, Sasuke was pissed. The unhappy Uchiha glared at one of the ANBU moving service workers, causing him to twitch under his steely gaze and hurry into the back of his truck. Now, Sasuke was a calm and reasonable young man. Not much managed to make him angry; even less made him anywhere close to happy. And certainly, the two men he had hired to help relocate his possessions to his new home, dropping said possessions about every half a minute, was not remotely close to the 'happy' in the Sasuke-mood-o-meter.

The raven-haired boy growled under his breath and stooped to pick up a fallen cardboard box, dusting off its battered sides and inspecting it quickly, before lugging it over to the pile he had stacked up on the porch of the house—mansion, really—he was renting out. Irony at one of its finest moments; Uchiha Sasuke, sole survivor of all that is Uchiha, college-bound, in desperate need of money, moving into a _mansion._ For some reason, it was being leased for a reasonably low price. So—what the hell, opportunity doesn't knock twice—Sasuke went and answered the add and now he had his new digs.

He paused to rummage in his pockets, pulling out a rather rusted silver key and inserted it into the lock, tugging once or twice experimentally before it opened with a faint _click_. The door had to be shoved on rather hard to open. A narrow strip of light illuminated part of the dusty foyer as Sasuke stepped in, one onyx eye immediately beginning to twitch in sheer irritation. Without a doubt, the place was filthy and looked like it hadn't been lived in for several years.

Sasuke threw open a couple windows, letting the welcomed light drift into the darkness and the autumn breeze race into the house and stir the dust. On his previous visit, he hadn't remembered the place being so god damned…_old_. Then again, he'd been desperate to get out of the shack he called an apartment.

"Oi, Mr. Uchiha, where d'ya want this?" One of the two moving men stuck his head through the open doorway, waving a hand in a haphazard gesture to Sasuke's dresser, which now sat on the porch.

"Upstairs—" Sasuke paused to point at a set of black iron-railed stairs to his right—"Inside the first room on your left."  
  
The man nodded curtly as Sasuke turned back to his own business. The boy decided to go and air out the rest of the ground floor rooms, if not only to make it bearable to live in this dump, but to restrain himself from beating one or both of the ANBU shitless as he heard a loud _clunk_ and "Damnit!"

With a heavy sigh, Sasuke trudged off, his dark glare settling on the poor innocent walls, practically making the paper peel off more then it already had.

**›››››_I don't know what I am to you_ ‹‹‹‹‹**

Sasuke plopped down on the jumbled mess of furniture in what he had hoped to call his bedroom by this point in time, tired, sweaty, and sore.

After moving all of the boxes of his various stuff into their respective rooms, leaving them to be sorted out later, Sasuke had been forced to assist the apparently more intelligent of the two ANBU moving men, death glaring the other none-too-gently. With their strength combined, Sasuke's furniture had found its way into the creaky old mansion, and then the two hired men had hopped off into their truck and sped away.

Sasuke had spent the better part of his day rearranging said furniture. All he had left was to move the stuff in his new bed room and all the crap in the cardboard boxes and he'd be done moving in. The 18-year-old forced himself to his feet, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand as he surveyed what he had left to move. He could leave the dresser there, nudge the bed a bit to the left—

"Oi!" A voice drifted out of nowhere, breaking rather rudely into his thoughts.

Sasuke blinked. He must be hearing things.

"Hey! You!"

"What the—?!" Sasuke spun on his heel to face the unknown and successfully tripped himself in the process. He stumbled for a moment to regain balance…

…Which idiot left the slippery moving pad-thingies on the floor?

With a spectacular _crash_ and a loud _thunk_, Sasuke's legs flew out from underneath him and his forehead promptly met the edge of his nightstand. Spots of light dotted his vision as the voice yelled incoherently at him again. Sasuke tipped to the side, one feeble hand half-heartedly attempting to clutch at his forehead, before he crashed to the side. The boy blacked out, but not before spotting a splash of bright gold and a shocking shade of orange in the inky darkness.

**›››››_But I'm sorry, so sorry, if I can't be_ ‹‹‹‹‹**

Lookit the pretty dots spin... round n' round they go, where they stop no one knows…

A woozy Sasuke slowly lifted his eyelids, scrubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand in an attempt to clear his foggy vision. All he could see was a few licks of black; that was probably his hair dangling in his eyes again, two bright blue spots—damnit, why won't the colored dots just go away?!—and that infuriating orange that clawed savagely at his aching head.

And then an equally infuriating voice. "It's about _time_ you woke up!"

See, the Uchiha clan has been carried on for a very long time. Ancient times, in fact, generation after generation after generation. In any generation, however, one of the first lessons any Uchiha should know is to protect their territory, personal space, whatever, at all times.

So, Sasuke replied in an equally loud shout (which he instantly regretted, as it made his ears ring) "Who the hell are you, and the hell are you doing in my house?!"

"Your house? _Your _house?! This has been my place for the last couple of dozen decades!"

Sasuke opened his mouth to throw back whatever sharp retort he could think of, and then promptly shut it at the word 'decades'. "Decades? Great, I move in one day and I already get broken in by some lunatic who thinks he's frickin' immortal..."

"Can't be immortal if you're already dead," The voice cheerfully replied.

Well.

That woke him up.

Sasuke blinked in confusion as the blend of colors separated and took on a distinct shape. Spiky shocks of golden, sunshine-colored hair, a pair of brilliant sky-blue eyes; that offending orange clothing clinging to the body of a teenage boy who looked around his age. He looked completely normal (with maybe an exception of the clothes; just couldn't get over its horrible neon color!) had it not been the fact the boy wasn't completely solid.

Yup.

And the fact he was floating. Mid air.

The blonde grinned at him cheekily—notice the odd whisker marks on either cheek…hell, that could be normal too if he was one of those twisted punks who felt the obsessive need to cover every inch of their skin with some tattoo—folding his arms over his chest as he sat cross-legged and floated several feet above the floor. "Welcome back to the land of the living, sleeping beauty," He added with a mocking grin.

Sasuke blinked, then rubbed his eyes again, and took a good long look. He was still there. Then he turned, rubbed his eyes, slapped himself hard in the face and took another good look. Blue-eyes smirked back at him in obvious amusement.

"Alright. This has been a long day—" Sasuke closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

"Was a long night, you conked out after ramming your head on the table," The other cheerfully interjected, gesturing at the window, through which the morning sun was indeed visible.

"—long _day_," He ground out through tightly clenched teeth, refusing to spare the boy another glance and instead directed his pointed glare at the evil wooden surface of the nightstand, "I hit my head on a table, and now I'm hallucinating. Excellent."

"Hallucinating?!" The boy cried indignantly, standing up—well, taking a standing pose, he was still floating—"I, Uzumaki Naruto, am no damned hallucination."

"Right. So what are you?" Sasuke shot back automatically. "Shit. I'm talking to thin air. Maybe I should've bought some more aspirin…" He muttered, glaring balefully at the pair of innocent-looking moving mats that had previously caused him so much pain and agony.

"A spirit! Duh!" Naruto leaned forward, staring at Sasuke straight in the eye (despite the patented Uchiha Death Glare aimed at him), though he was several inches shorter. "You don't look so good," He commented idly.

"I wonder why," Sasuke snarled back.

Naruto floated back a foot or two, his own baby blue eyes narrowing dramatically. "Hey, hey, you don't have to be a total asshole about it."

Sasuke chose not to dignify that statement with another response. The boy stretched and shuffled in the general direction of the door, groping around his dresser for a moment to grab a navy-blue headband and tie it around his forehead to keep his bangs out of his eyes, then let himself through the door and began the long, agonizing trek downstairs to the kitchen. Naruto popped _through_ the wall, a fact he also chose to ignore along with the boy in general, and followed him silently as he stumbled down the creaky wooden stairs.

"…Sooooo….why are you in my house again?"

Sasuke grit his teeth as he entered the kitchen, then moved to rip the duct tape off one of his boxes with much more force then needed, sending the piece of tape and half the cardboard itself flying across the room. He picked up a glass cup from the remains of the box, crossed the kitchen to fill it with water and instantly downed it all in one gulp, almost sighing in the relief it brought to his dried throat.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

_And I'm not_. Sasuke mentally kicked himself as he refilled the cup, set it on the counter, and went to look for where he had dumped the medicine.

"Stop ignoring me!"

_Happy place. Happy place. Happy place._ He must delirious or something. That crack with the god damned nightstand must have seriously jilted his brain…or…or something.

"LISTEN TO ME, GOD DAMNIT!" Apparently, Uzumaki Naruto was one who liked to be heard. All-the-fucking-time.  
  
"SHUT _UP!_" Sasuke finally roared back at the ghost-boy, then promptly clamped his mouth shut as Naruto grinned at him in satisfaction of eliciting a reply. "Alright. I'll play along. What the _hell_ do you want?!"

"For you to tell me what the hell you're doing in _my_ house."

Sasuke dropped the sadly empty bottle of aspirin he found on the kitchen table, flopping down in one of the chairs scattered around it. If that guy didn't stop speaking in such a freakin' loud voice… "I moved in. Yesterday. As in, bought house, moved into house, not your house, dobe."

Naruto's eyebrows knit together as he crossed his arms again, staring down at Sasuke and scowling. "Don't call me that, asshole! And I've been here, _alone,_ since…forever. Well, except that one old lady… ran out screaming like bloody murder after I tried to talk to her. Stupid hag." He noted the tinge of bitterness in the spirit's voice.

The raven-haired boy suddenly felt the obsessive urge to bang his head unto another of the poor innocent walls rapidly as Naruto, brows furrowed in thought, rattled off every last previous owner of the mansion and how they'd all been somehow, inexplicably, moved out within a week of moving in. Well, Sasuke wasn't a cowardly old geezer, and he'd be damned before a figment of his imagination managed to drive him out of the best deal he found in ages! Something about the ghost irritated him to no ends, yet intrigued him at the same time, or he would've gone back to sleep long ago. Or maybe it because of how loudly the exuberant young man always spoke.

Nevertheless, for some reason Sasuke felt he'd rather die then be shown up by the annoying blonde and chased from the old mansion.

So, once again solidly ignoring the blonde, Sasuke stood up and picked up the aspirin bottle, throwing it through Naruto (who stopped off with a loud, angry "Hey! I hate it when people do that!") and into the trash can, and turned to go straighten out the rest of his new household.

**›››››_If I can't be what your eye makes believe_‹‹‹‹‹**

Sasuke's first visitor arrived the following Tuesday, October 19th. It was a cool autumn evening, the velvet sky washed in charcoal-colored darkness, dotted with diamonds of stars and a sliver of the moon. Sasuke was settled on his couch, intently studying a history book in preparation of Konoha University's entrance exams, attempting to ignore some loud banging coming from upstairs that was most likely caused by none other then Uzumaki Naruto in some way or another. Then another loud banging noise joined in, followed by a hollow-sounding _thump_ from the general direction of the foyer. The eighteen-year-old gave up trying to study, dropped his book on the couch, and strode out to the hallway to answer the door, from which there was a funny giggling sound emerging through.

The raven-haired boy threw the door open expectantly, except for the fact there was nobody there. Sasuke blinked and peered out in confusion, when suddenly there was another _thump_ and something hit the ground near his feet.

"Haha…hi Shashuke! You'll like, never believe what happeneeeed…" The owner of the slightly slurred voice attempted to pick himself up, failed, and collapsed once again, giggling insanely.

Sasuke stared in blatant distaste at his visitor, before grabbing Gaara by his collar and hauling him to his feet. "How the hell did you manage to get this knocked up?"

Gaara broke away from Sasuke's grip on his shirt and slumped against the wall, choking out words in between his laughter. "Heh. Great bar on the south side a town, dun even bother checking your ID for fakes… And tha bastard dared me anyway…" Sasuke and Gaara had been friends for a while. Both quiet, introspective, and generally anti-social, the boys were able to put up with each other. Unfortunately, while Sasuke was just anti-social, Gaara was anti-social and a sadistic bastard, who also managed to get as high as kite after a couple of shots. "Haha—look Sasuke—there's this flying dude over there—"

Sasuke spared a glance over his shoulder, where Naruto was floating, having given up teasing the poor mice in the attic and became interested at the source of noise from the entrance. Thankfully, the ghost had ousted the orange jumpsuit for a pair of black pants and a crimson long-sleeve shirt, and was now 'sitting' on the banister, watching Gaara laugh with interest. "Gaara, I think you need to—"

"Shut up, Suke! I can take care of myseeeelf…I'm a big boy now…" Gaara proceeded to attempt to make his way down hallway, stumbling in his drunken stupor. Naruto zoomed down to stare at Gaara quizzically, while Sasuke rolled his eyes and strode forward to catch up.

"For God's sake Gaara, you're as high as frickin' kite! How much did you actually _drink_?!"

Gaara stopped to think, or tried to. "Hnn. Dunno…lost count after the 12th… Couldn't beat Kiba, damnit…"

Naruto snickered, using whatever strange spiritual powers he possessed to lift one of Sasuke's books. It glowed an odd shade of blue, similar to Naruto's translucent eyes, then flew across the room and repeatedly poked Gaara in the head. Gaara attempted to swat the thing away, failing the first two time before the ruby-haired boy managed to grab it and nearly rip half the pages out. Sasuke's eyes widened as he dived forward to rescue the object, while Gaara half-heartedly scowled at Naruto, absently ripping a page out.

"_Gaara!_ Watch it!"  
  
"Tha' bastard's smirkin' at meh," Gaara slurred, then threw the book at Naruto, apparently not noticing or caring as it flew through the spirit and crashed into a wall.  
  
Sasuke rubbed his temples in exasperation as Naruto, now having far too much fun, picked up another object to bother Gaara with. "That's _it,_" he growled, stomping forward and grabbing Gaara's wrist, dragging him away from Naruto, who pouted as his toy was bodily removed from the hallway.

Gaara's head seemed to have collided with the book too many times, and the normally stoic red-head stumbled as his vision reeled and promptly vomited in a dizzy fit.

On Sasuke.

"Sorry, Suke…" Gaara mumbled, his next couple of words punctuated by a hacking fit. Sasuke seethed to himself, holding the stained fabric away from his skin, while Naruto burst into laughter behind them.

"Charming friends, _suke_," Naruto snickered.

"Shut up, Naruto," Sasuke growled in irritation as he peeled off his shirt, and involuntarily gave all present a nice view of his chest as he left to dump the dirty clothes in the kitchen sink. Naruto found his eyes glued to the boy's pale skin and muscular chest. Apparently, Sasuke worked out, and judging by how very social he was, Sasuke was not somebody to fuck around with. In fact, you probably weren't supposed to get close to Sasuke at all. Which really sucked, because he bet close was exactly how anyone would want to be after having that nice view of said well-toned chest.

"Oi, Naruto dude, I think you're drooling."

Five minutes later, a puzzled Sasuke re-entered the hallway to find an unconscious Gaara sprawled over the floor and another book besides his body that seemed to have slammed into his head quite soundly.

**›››››_If you looked and tried very hard to see_‹‹‹‹‹**

Two days later, Sasuke was beginning to understand exactly why each of the mansion's former occupants had left.

Naruto was…well, _everywhere._  
  
It seemed like the blonde almost had some strange connection with the house. He either had extraordinary hearing or some uncanny ability to tell exactly where Sasuke, and nothing could stop Naruto from barging in and wreaking havoc. Sasuke was forced to believe the whole spiritual thing, as he learned when Naruto popped into the bathroom while he was taking a shower and stole all the towels. The ghost boy had the power to manipulate the spiritual energy of any object, no matter how little or how much it had, and generally screw around with real-world objects. That, in itself, was enough to make poor Sasuke's life living hell. It also seemed Naruto had risen to Sasuke's challenge of staying in his new home, and was doing his very best to piss him off at every damn point imaginable.

Naruto wondered about it too. Sasuke interested him a lot; he was, so far, the only person that hadn't A) freaked out when they first spotted him, running in circles and panicking while loudly screaming "DEMON! GHOST! HEEEEELP!" or B) fainted, then moved right back out as soon as possible. Naruto had been haunting this mansion for exactly one hundred sixty-seven years, and he had nobody to talk to except the mice in the attic and the random cockroach and ant infestations. Unfortunately, Sasuke was about as vocal as said cockroaches, so Naruto turned to the only other way he knew to force the raven-haired teen to respond: annoyance.

_"Oi, asshole!"_

_Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, then returned to watching TV, not bothering to acknowledge Naruto's presence as he floated through the wall. The blonde stared at the TV in fascination, apparently never having seen one, or just intrigued with the whirls of flashing colors. Sasuke sub-consciously began flipping through channels as fast as possible. Click. Click. Click. Click._

_"Hey! I'm trying to see!" Naruto complained. Sasuke continued to ignore him. Click. Click. Click._

_Naruto waved both arms up and down in an attempt to attract his attention (and blocking the screen at the same time), resembling the men flagging the runways at airports, causing Sasuke's eye to twitch unpleasantly. Sasuke paused in his channel surfing momentarily, glaring at Naruto, though the ferocity of his gaze seemed to bounce right off the hyperactive boy. "Go _away_, Naruto."_

_Naruto brightened up for a second. "Does that mean you've finally accepted the fact I do indeed exist—well not really, but—damnit, I mean—"_

_"Naruto, what do you _want?!_" He cried in irritation, sending a freezing glance at the boy._

_"Nothing! Nothing!" Naruto's waving ceased from Sasuke's icy glare. Desperate to look anywhere except the coal-eyed boy, his cerulean eyes shifted back to the TV screen. "…But I didn't know you watched porn, Sasuke—HEY! Stop throwing things at me!"_

Oh yes. That had been memorable. Naruto had fled the Uchiha's wrath as Sasuke's face turned a dark red (either from rage or embarrassment, or both, he never knew which) and he threw the remote at him, which unfortunately landed on its volume button.

Guess what happens next.

The sounds of someone reaching the climax of orgasmic bliss blared through the old, worn walls of the mansion. Days after, Naruto had trouble stifling a round of laughter every time Sasuke dared ventured outside and was greeted by very odd and disapproving glances from his new neighbors.

_"…Will you stop that already?"  
  
Naruto drooled openly at Sasuke. Rather, what Sasuke held, which happened to be Naruto's absolute favorite thing in all of existence—ramen. The golden-haired boy wiped his mouth off with the back of his sleeve and shrugged carelessly. "What? It's not fair!"  
  
"Tough." Naruto twitched as he mournfully watched Sasuke take a bite of his noodles from the white plastic cup._

_"Daaaaamnit," The spirit whined. "I love ramen! _And_ I can't have any! This sucks!"_

_Sasuke smirked at him evilly, slowly chewing and swallowing, strangely satisfied at finally being able to push the blonde's buttons. "It really must," the eighteen-year-old drawled, lazily waving his chopsticks. "I mean, I'd share," insert perfectly evil—and sexy—smirk—" but you're kind of dead." Sasuke ate the last of the noodles, drained the container of all leftover soup, then crushed it in his fist and lobbed it through Naruto to the trashcan, an activity he was thoroughly beginning to enjoy. The teen spun on his heel and exited, stifling a laugh at Naruto's tortured expression._

That was before Naruto retaliated by doing said bathroom prank, leaving a soaking wet and fuming Sasuke yelling at him through the doorway for half an hour straight.

Their was suddenly an unwritten law between the two that there was a war and the first to back down would be the first to go, or something along those lines. Call it rivalry, or perhaps just immaturity, but both struggled to hold their own. Unfortunately for Sasuke, Naruto had been around for hell of a lot longer then he had, knew every last thing about the creaky old mansion, and he had his spiritual powers, a lot more in comparison to the meager mental torture Sasuke could inflict on him.

And that was why a very angry and somewhat confused Sasuke was standing in his kitchen, staring at the yellowed pages of the phonebook spread out in front of him, contemplating his next move.

Oh yes. It was a dirty move, but it had to be done. Sasuke was near his wit's end and beginning to fear for his sanity. _Then again,_ he thought bemusedly, flicking a page in the massive book that laid open in front of him, one finger trailing down the page and halting at a specific phone number, _no one in their damn right mind would be calling 'Exorcise & Exterminate, Your one-stop source to get rid of any kind of pest, dead or alive!'_.

Well, low blow, but Sasuke desperately needed his peace and quiet to study for his exams.

The harsh buzzing dial tone filled his ears as he quickly stabbed in the phone number and placed the phone to his ear. Six…seven…eight…when were they going to pick up?!

"Yo."

Sasuke blinked as the dial tone was replaced by a calm, easy-going sounding voice, none of it sounding what he expected a professional or someone skilled in their expertise to…well, sound like. "Is this the…the… Exorcise & Exterminate service…thing…?" He muttered into the mouthpiece uncertainly.

"Yup," the voice cheerfully agreed. "Tonight's special is the hot & raw package, including extermination of one type of household pest and front-row seats to viewing free porn performed by Hatake Kakashi and—"

"KAKASHI!" There was a click as another phone was apparently picked up and another voice interrupted the other-now-known-as-Kakashi. "I'm sorry," the other man apologized. "I'm Umino Iruka of E & E service, how can I help you?"  
  
Sasuke practically removed the phone from his ear to stare at in disgust, wondering exactly the what the hell had he been thinking calling what sounded like a perverted lunatic and his partner. He didn't seriously believe there were other people who actually believed in this kind of superstitious bullshit, much less people who ran a business about it. "Umm…Well. It might sound stupid, but… Unless I've gone mental, I believe there's a ghost haunting the house I just moved into…"  
  
"Ghost?" Kakashi broke in, his slow voice sounding mildly interested. "Let me guess, old mansion or shack abandoned for a couple of centuries, right?"  
  
The charcoal-haired boy arched an eyebrow, even though the two couldn't see his face. "Mansion."  
  
"And you want to get rid of it," Kakashi continued.

"Exactly."  
  
"Depends what kind of spirit it is," Iruka put in thoughtfully. "If it's an angry spirit, then it'll have to be removed by force… Can you describe what it's like?"  
  
"Calls himself Uzumaki Naruto," Sasuke answered flatly. "And as far as I know, he spends ninety percent of his time trying to piss me off. Doesn't seem to be some malevolent specter waiting to possess my body and kill everything within a ten mile radius whenever I go to sleep," he added in dryly, not expecting his words to be taken seriously at all.

"In that case," Iruka stated, "He's your ordinary spirit."  
  
Sasuke twitched. "Meaning?"  
  
"Meaning he has some unfinished business or something," Kakashi filled in. "Probably committed suicide or something like that. Teen angst, y'know."  
  
Unbeknownst to Sasuke, the brunette on the other line rolled his eyes as he continued on Kakashi's blunt summarization. "Anyway, something's bothering it, so it's holding it back from moving on," Iruka explained. "If it was an angry spirit, we could exorcise it or seal it away, but normal ghosts are a bit trickier. You have to find out what's wrong with it, try to solve the problem, and then hopefully it'll move on into the afterlife."

Sasuke sighed heavily as he processed the new information. Dealing with Naruto currently was enough to go him a headache whenever the spirit felt rowdy and in need to pull pranks, which was almost all the time, and he doubt the boy would appreciate anyone, Sasuke included, trying to pry into his past and generally make him go away. He could see it now…

Sasuke: Hey, Naruto, how many times were you dropped on the head as a child? TT  
Naruto: Huh? Oo

Sasuke: I mean, what disturbing things emotionally scarred you for the rest of your life while you were still living?  
Naruto: -suspicious- Why'dya wanna know?

Sasuke: -cough-…So I can get rid of you? TT  
Naruto: …Bastard. TT

Yeah. That'd go over _really_ well.

"Alright. Thanks for your help… how much do I owe you?" Sasuke grit his teeth, wondering why he bothered calling. He already heard all that crap about ghosts before anyway, and he didn't exactly have the kind of cash for frivolous things. Such as calling perverted exterminators.

"Oh, nothing," Kakashi answered airily. "Not like we actually had to drive out and go kill something for you. Speaking of driving, Iruka, now that the job's done, let's go have kinky sex in the back of the van!"

"_KAKASHI!_" With a chuckle, the other hung up with a _click_, a tiny beeping sound ringing in the remaining two's ears as his phone line disconnected Iruka sighed heavily, apologized for his companion's behavior, bid good-bye, and hung up as well. Sasuke replaced the phone on its cradle, leaning against the wall, immersed in deep thought. So… play the counselor, get Naruto to go away.

Then again, how exactly do you solve some one else's problems when you've got too many of your own?

**›››››_Maybe, just maybe, you'll get a glimpse of me_‹‹‹‹‹**

Sasuke dropped the rag he was holding on the arm of the couch, then plopped down on the leather besides it. Clearing a few year's worth of dust, grime, and general filth from his new home was exhausting, and he swore everyday he dusted the damn place it generated two times more of the crap, just to irritate him. Still, the raven-haired boy continued to wage war against the household, dutifully scrubbing away in attempts to sanitize the dump.

The teen forced himself off the couch, which was quickly becoming all-too-comfortable for his worn body, an surveyed the room. He cleared out his bedroom and the kitchen first, successfully managing to make it decent and organize all of his stuff, and he was halfway done with the hallways, living room, and a few of the extra bathrooms and guestrooms. That still left the attic, which really had no intention of venturing up to, and the basement. He needed extra storage room, and he hadn't checked it out yet anyway, so…

After opening one or two doors to the main foyer, he successfully located the correct door, staring down into the darkness the plain wooden stairs led down to. _What're you, afraid?_ He scolded himself and immediately plunged downward.

Sasuke groped around for a moment before finding the light switch, though it did little, as three of the four lights placed in the basement were burned out. Sasuke sneezed twice, fanning the air around his face as dust sailed around him. The small underground room was piled with dozens of stacks of boxes and trunks and some odds and ends of furniture forgotten or left behind with a purpose (as he noted of a rather shabby looking, blood-stained sofa). Everything seemed to be coated with a two inch layer of dust, proof of the ages they had been stored away, but what instantly caught the teen's eye was a trunk sitting in the corner, though obviously quite old, that was devoid of any substance that told of how long it'd been sitting down here. Sasuke moved forward, curiosity aroused, kneeling besides the small trunk and inspecting it with interest. After a struggle with the rusty locks, the lid slid open, revealing the most astonishing collection of ninja equipment he'd ever seen.

The insides of the wooden trunk were divided in compartments; two small ones were stacked with shruiken, the other with kunai, and two or three giant windmill shruikens laid besides that. There was a pile of scrolls written in old-style kanji that Sasuke couldn't quite read, but from the few fragments he could pick up they were describing various jutsu and how to perform the techniques. There was a stack of books accompanying the scrolls, a crystal orb, a dusty, moth-eaten pillow, and a weird-looking, wide-brimmed hat, among other ninja-related tools.

The shruiken and kunai gleamed up at him as if they brand new, the feeble light the basement lamps gave off shining on their smooth razor-edged ebony surface. Sasuke picked up one of the kunai, weirded out by how natural it felt in his palm. He let the weapon rejoin the others of its likeness with a clatter. There was what looked like some kind of head accessory, a metal plate engraved with a symbol like a leaf, sewn to a navy-blue band of fabric, similar to something he thought he saw Naruto wear once. And that was all the trunk contained, until he spotted a sheaf of paper tucked away behind the crystal orb.

It was a stack of photographs. The paper was worn and yellowed, creased and crinkly with age, but the faces it captured still beamed up at him with amazing clarity, the colors only slightly faded. There was a picture of an village that looked positively thrown together out of odds and ends and whatever building material the architects could find; scenic pictures of a forest, mountains in the distance, an ocean and a large bridge that spanned some water body. Then there was a photo of Naruto, still grinning like an idiot, his whiskered face stretched into a wide smile as he stared at the camera. The next were a couple of group pictures of Naruto and presumably his friends. The last photo stood out from the rest, as it was the only one that was of a person and didn't have Naruto in it.

The image of a girl smiled happily from the worn paper. She had mint-green eyes, shoulder-length cherry-blossom pink hair, with one of those head protector things tied amidst her tresses as a sort of headband. Her smile was innocent as she waved at the camera, red dress drifting in the wind.

"Oi, Uchiha-bastard! Where are you?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's latest and lamest nickname, twisting around halfway on his knees to glance up at the doorway. "Down here, dobe!" He shouted back, then turned back to staring at the picture of the pink-haired girl. For some reason, as happy and as innocent as she looked, there was something wrong with her smile, something wrong with the aura the picture seemed to give off.

Naruto appeared in the doorway, a perfectly evil grin imminent on his face. "Ya know what would suck? Me 'accidentally' locking you in he—"

Sasuke looked up as Naruto abruptly trailed off. The color in the spirit's face seemed to drain away, making his ghostly tanned skin look even paler then Sasuke's. The blonde seemed to be frozen up, his jaw working soundlessly as he stared blankly at the picture in Sasuke's hand. "…How…" He started and faltered, then tried again. "How did you find those?!"  
  
'I was cleaning and decided to snoop through your junk?' Yup, real smooth, Uchiha. Sasuke blinked, looking down from picture to ghost and back again. "Uhh… I _was_ going to clean up down here…" he said evasively, "…and I came across…your trunk, I think… What's wrong with you?"

Naruto jerked away, glancing desperately in any direction except Sasuke's. "No one," he muttered under his breath, turning to leave.

Sasuke flipped the pink-haired girl's picture to the bottom, coming across the final image. It was the girl, her arms loosely wrapped around Naruto in what looked like a friendly hug, but the emotion that seemed to shine through both pairs of emerald green and sky blue projected something much more then 'friendly'. Naruto practically glowed in the picture, looking somehow happier then Sasuke had ever seen him. The picture stirred something inside the raven-haired boy's heart; a sense of longing to love and be loved like he never had, as a child and as a teen; yet more curiosity, and a fogged understanding that perhaps Naruto wasn't a simple trouble-making prank-pulling ghost. The foxy grin the spirit flashed him was a watered down version of the enormous smile plastered to his face in the photograph.

It made him think how truly little he actually knew about the blonde.

_Jealousy…?_

"Naruto," he called firmly, causing the golden-haired boy to stop, though he didn't turn around. "Who _is_ this?"

Naruto was silent for a few seconds, contemplating whether or not to tell Sasuke. "It's…" he whispered darkly, crossing his arms, "It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

"What's special about her?" Sasuke pressed, quickly shuffling the photographs so that it looked like he hadn't seen the picture of the two together.

Naruto flinched. "I don't want to talk about it," He answered in a flat voice, so unlike the Naruto he knew—or thought he knew, at least.

"Tell me."

"_Fine_!" Naruto snapped, whirling around as Sasuke stared at him in shock at the sudden outburst. "She was my _girlfriend,_ okay?!"

**›››››_I'm sorry I can't be what your eye makes believe…_‹‹‹‹‹**

**A/N:** Well, that wraps up the first chapter. This would've originally been two chapters, but I lumped it all together. Hope ya guys liked it… I'm looking forward to writing the other stuff I plotted out. xD It changed a lot from what I originally thought up already, but that's okay! If I may quote the description on the Wingin' It set from Gaia online, 'sometimes a half-assed job is better then non at all.'

Though I think I did pretty well keeping them in character. I think. Oh…except for Gaara. But he's drunk, so that's okay.

Right now, I'm busy drooling at a couple of doujinishi I found… I desperately want to buy 'Naruto de Punch!!' by Meiji Kimera, but everywhere I've looked so far either hasn't had it in stock or isn't selling it at all. Blast, and they drew Sasuke all sexy-like too.

Anyway… that's it for ranting. Leave a comment or two and let me know how I'm doing, okay?

-Sinful Serenity

_I don't know what I am to you_

_But I'm sorry, so sorry, if I can't be_

_If I can't be what your eye makes believe_

_If you looked and tried very hard to see_

_Maybe, just maybe, you'll get a glimpse of me_

_I'm sorry I can't be what your eye makes believe…_

**. WHAT . YOUR . EYE . MAKES . BELIEVE .**


	2. Black and White Smile

Oh my god. She's back.

Anyway…thanks to everyone for the reviews, I'll address them on the A/N at the end of the chapter, because I'm sure nobody wants to bother scrolling through a thick pile of thanks. Besides that… On with the story. It will get more serious…I think. I hope.

**Warnings:** 1) Semi-graphic violence in his chapter. Nothing really serious, and hardly any of it, just thought I'd stick it up here.

2) Shounen-ai. Boy on boy action. If you're homophobic, _please_ don't even bother flaming about it.

**Disclaimer**: _Unless_ you see Sasuke and Naruto making out in the next manga volume…chapter…thing, Sinful doesn't own Naruto. Yet.

-

**. W A I T . A N D . S E E .**

By _Sinful Serenity_

Act 2—Black and White Smile

-

"_Fine_!" Naruto snapped, whirling around as Sasuke stared at him in shock at the sudden outburst. "She was my _girlfriend,_ okay?!"

**›››››**_ **Have you heard that melody **_**‹‹‹‹‹**__

"Girlfriend…?" Sasuke echoed blankly, staring at the ghost as he shoulders trembled with what looked like barely suppressed rage. "...How is that such a big deal?" He muttered rather bluntly. The blonde finally turned to glare darkly at Sasuke and unleashed the full fury of Uzumaki Naruto.

"DON'T TALK ABOUT THINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Naruto yelled so loudly his voice scattered dust, ending the particles swirling in the musty air, the walls shaking as if they, too, were pulsing in rage.

Sasuke flinched, not expecting Naruto to become so quickly agitated. "Yeah…well…I can't understand if you don't tell me!" He snapped back after fumbling for a response. Well, kill two birds with one stone, right? Obviously the matter of this Haruno Sakura chick bothered Naruto very much. Maybe that was what was holding him back? But the raven-haired had felt compelled to ask before the thought of convincing Naruto to get over himself had even registered in his brain. It disturbed the teen, but he pressed on anyway.

The rage abruptly died from Naruto's face. "I don't have to tell you anything," he mumbled, sounding much more like the annoying spirit Sasuke knew him as.

"C'mon," Sasuke insisted, setting the photos down back in there place in the trunk.

"No."  
  
"Damnit, dobe, so you're just going to bitch at me for something I have know _nothing_ about and run off to sulk about it?!" Sasuke shot back angrily, trying to catch the blonde's eyes. Obsidian met aqua, locked in a commanding glance; it was no longer a question, a request, more of an order that Naruto spill. The golden-haired boy barely hid a shudder, his mind racing as he desperately floundered for some excuse, any way out of the situation. The steely onyx eyes refused to allow him to break contact. Naruto swallowed and visibly sagged, drifting quietly down the stairs and perching a top a stack of boxes. "I…well…shit, there's no way out of this, is there?"  
  
"Nope. Now tell me, dobe."  
  
"Keep your pants on, asshole," Naruto retorted, glaring at Sasuke before his gaze shifted to the stack of photos, then sighed; his face contorting into the expression of those who had a long and sad story to tell, if only someone had an hour or two to spare. "Fine. Part of it started ever since I was born. There was a demon fox that terrorized the shinobi villages, destroying everything in its path, mercilessly killing in eternal blood lust. The damned thing kept destroying our homes year after year, time after time, and nobody could fight back, cause it was just that damn powerful. So they kept building their homes over and over, only to have them burned down or crushed.

Well, the fifth or sixth time the demon fox—the Kyuubi no Kitsune, because he had nine tails—attacked, the shinobi decided to finally fight back, or at least try to weaken the Kyuubi until the Hokage—he's the champion ninja of the village—arrived and could hopefully destroy the demon. A lot of people died, many lost family members, and all of that jazz… as strong as the Hokage was, he couldn't defeat the Kyuubi. Instead, he decided to seal the demon away, since he knew it was senseless to fight a losing battle." Naruto trailed off, his voice becoming more bitter with every word.

"A regular seal wasn't enough, so they had to resort to containing the demon fox within a living vessel. Guess who they chose," he laughed hollowly, his voice ringing in the tiny basement.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at what Naruto implied. Well, that explained the three whiskers that marked either side of his face. "You mean…?" He started incredulously.

Naruto nodded, cutting him off. "Yup. That's me. So they sealed the Kyuubi in me, made a law that nobody was supposed to know about it, then went and died. Even if they weren't allowed to tell me that the Kyuubi existed in me, that didn't stop the bastards from picking on me since I was kid. I found out after Mizuki—fucking ass of a teacher—'accidentally' let it slip.

So then I figured out why everybody hated me, even though I didn't do anything to them. I got depressed for a bit… And Sakura noticed. She was the smartest girl, top student in the ninja academy, was assigned to be on my team, I had a crush on her for a long time, and she hated me. Still, she couldn't let one of her teammates fuck up any of their missions just because of some petty _feelings,_ so she came over to see what the hell was wrong with me. I ended up telling her everything.

I knew it was probably just pity then… But I made myself pretend she liked me too. We got pretty close and started going out… She made happy. Really happy."

"And?"  
  
"And then the fucking Kyuubi decided to screw up my life more then it did already." Naruto shook his head, anger burning in his cerulean, shifting in a complex web of the emotional overload the dead teen's tale obviously spun. "One night… A team of missing-nins, or traitors to the village, launched an attack. Sakura was in danger, so the first thing I did was to go protect her. The missing-nins were too much for a couple of _kids_—" The blonde scowled, "—and we got badly wounded. The kyuubi took advantage of the weak hold I had on it and…well, it came out, fully possessed my body, and proceeded to kill everything in a five mile radius, including the entire village. The last one left was Sakura… And even though she probably knew it was the Kyuubi, I guess grief took over the chick and she got really angry. She tried to kill the kyuubi… and in the end, she died too."

**››››› _"Please don't take my sunshine away"…?_****‹‹‹‹‹**__

_The blonde's eyes were slitted, a deep, crimson-red, the whiskers on his face more pronounced, a pair of ears poking out his hair along with a tail, his nails elongated into sharp claws. He stood in front of her, her slaughtered family, surrounded by dancing flames that cast razor-edged shadows everywhere, and Sakura felt her breath hitch as she cradled the head of her older sister._

_"S…Sa..kur…a?" _

_"Sssh… I'm here, I'm here," The pink-haired kunoichi whispered, hugging her sister tightly. "It's…it's gonna be alright. I promise, Arashi!"_

_The girl in her arms was too weak to move, her blood staining Sakura's dress, the warm fluid seeping through the fabric and feeling icy cold at the same time. "H…how many times have I told you, Sakura?" She whispered, eyelids slowly drifting shut over her emerald-green eyes. "Don't…make promises…you…can't…keep…" The older girl's head rolled back as her chest ceased to stop moving, her body shutting down for the final time._

_"Arashi? ARASHI?!" Tears flowed openly down her cheeks, streaming in crystal rivulets. "No…damnit…Arashi! Open your eyes!"_

_"She's gone," The kyuubi hissed, a feral grin lighting Naruto's face. It crouched , tail lashing the ground, fire raging around them; screams echoed in the ruins of the once peaceful Konoha, whispers fading into the night.  
  
"No…no…" Sakura released Arashi's body, sliding back, her gaze shifting from her sister's face to Naruto-turned-Kyuubi. Hatred flared into the mint-green orbs as she wrenched a kunai from her holster, stumbling to her feet, trembling in rage. "I…I'm gonna kill you!" She screamed angrily, her hair pale in the firelight, sticking to her face in clumps as she cried. "You killed them! Killed them all!"_

_And Naruto could do nothing but watch helplessly from the back of his mind, watch through the Kyuubi's eyes as it leapt forward on its latest victim. Sakura couldn't possibly keep up with the sheer speed and power the Kyuubi exhibited. With a ululating howl, the fox demon knocked aside the girl's weapon, pinning her to the ground, claws poised over her heart. "Say good bye."  
  
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, willing with all of her heart for this to just be some horrible dream. But there was no such relief, and her eyes slowly opened to those fiery blood-red eyes, once a beautiful shade of sky-blue that had called to her heart, a shade of ocean sapphire filled with sorrow that touched her soul. But it was gone, gone, gone, replaced by those horrible cat-like orbs, snarling down at her. She wondered how Naruto could have lost control—wondered how she had fallen in love with Naruto at all. It was his fault! All of this was his god damned fault!_

_"I…I hate you, Naruto!" She cried, instantly choking on her words as the Kyuubi's talons dug into her chest, cruelly ripping into flesh, clawing about in search of her heart. The girl died in that instant, eyes glazing over, forever caught in that haunting, hateful gaze…_

**››››› _I would so wholeheartedly agree_****‹‹‹‹‹**__

"…That's not it, is it?" Sasuke asked quietly.

"No." Naruto replied curtly, running a hand through his golden spikes, letting out a resigned sigh. "And…she told me she hated me." Naruto didn't voice the next section; he woke up the morning, fully in control of his body, after fighting at the Kyuubi's control for hours on end and finally gnawing away at it's chakra to the point the fox-spirit was forced to retreat. It was then Naruto finally got the picture of how much carnage the Kyuubi had caused, how destruction had raged through the village and surrounding forest. And worst of all, there was still Sakura's corpse, heart torn out, eyes forever locked in that gaze…

The Village of Leaves had been almost entirely destroyed. All of the people's remaining possessions were moved into one wealthy ninja's home, who had managed to flee in time, placing all of their objects in his basement as they waited for their owner's relatives or maybe acquaintances to come and retrieve them. The few survivors had been forced to leave the ruins of Konoha, moving away, leaving behind the mansion and the history of the village, locked away underground.

…But not before Naruto snuck in. Not before the blonde crept down in the cellar, searched for his discarded weapons, death of his beloved still fresh in his mind—not before the golden-haired teen found an ebony kunai and slammed it into his heart.

The legend of the Kyuubi faded with time, and as it no longer had a host's life energy to feed off, the Kyuubi died with him. Konoha disappeared as well, before someone returned and built New Konoha into the city it was today. But they never touched the mansion, never touched the home of a lost ghost and the story he carried with him.

"That's _it_?" Sasuke's voice rammed into his thoughts.

"What'dya mean, 'that's it'?!" Naruto exploded, throwing his arm down and balling his hand into fists, glaring at Sasuke once again. He would've expected the raven-haired teen to be just a tad more sympathetic, or at least a little more god damn sensitive! Couldn't he tell this was obviously a touchy subject for the ghost boy?

Sasuke shrugged, scooting back a bit to slam the lid of the trunk shut, pausing to clamp down the rusty locks. "I mean… So she said she hated you. Get over yourself…It's not that god damn big of a deal if you think about it." Okay, so that was harsh, but Sasuke had never really understood what was so damn special about "falling in love" and all that shit. Yeah, feel good for a couple hours, get dumped and resort to either drinking and cutting, intent on the belief that nobody could _possibly_ understand your pain and agony, or spend the rest of your life slowly wasting away, bumbling about in your pathetic stupor, never forgiving yourself for causing your so-called lover problems.

Summed up; love made you weak. And Sasuke hated being weak more then anything else…well, second thing he hated more then anything else. There was that bastard of an older brot—

"What do _you_ know?" Naruto answered bitterly, cutting into his thoughts as he crossed his arms. "She was the only person in the whole fucking village that wouldn't turn away as soon as I stepped in the god damned room! I really loved her, okay?! She was really…special…and she…" he trailed off, furiously attempting to restrain the tears beginning to pool in his cerulean eyes.  
  
The raven-haired teen rotated his body, one arm resting on the trunk as he gazed up at Naruto. "So you're telling me she scarred you for life or some shit like that, right?" He answered, internally wincing. "You're right. I don't know anything. But if this Haruno girl loved you and you loved her, she would have understood that it wasn't you that killed her family or the village, right? So from what you've told me, I don't know much, but I don't think much of this Sakura either."

Naruto discovered that, for the first time in his life, he was rendered completely speechless.

He couldn't do anything but stare at Sasuke in disbelief, who gazed back at him levelly with those obsidian orbs. Naruto jerked away, shaking again in spite of himself. Every word was the honest truth, and it dawned on him that all his life, all he wanted was this kind of blatant truth, instead of the 'white lies' and deceit and utter fake-ness his previous life had thrown at him because of the secret of the Kyuubi. But years of deep love for Sakura and the weak affection she returned to him, despite the misgivings of everyone around them, had earned his respect, even if he had long since forgotten the love he originally felt for the pink-haired girl.

"Don't…don't talk about Sakura that way…" He whispered weakly.  
  
Silence. And… "The truth is better, even if it's harsh, then some stupid lie. No sense in sugar coating things…because sooner or later, you can't pretend anymore."

A sick feeling rose in Naruto's stomach, his eyes growing distant as Sasuke's words, riddled with a bitterness he failed to notice, sang over and over in his mind like some twisted psychotic mantra…

_Sooner or later, you can't pretend anymore._

_Sooner or later you **c a n ' t** pretend **a n y m o r e** _

Oh, but how he wanted to.

Suddenly he inexplicably hated the raven-haired boy, hated him for shocking him out of the sweet nightmare he had been living; loathed him for bringing him back to reality, despised the teen simply because of the salt stinging in old scarred wounds, brought freshly back to his mind, all because of the honest truth he couldn't possibly handle.

He was shaking.

"S…SHUT UP! _I HATE YOU, SASUKE_!"

The silence was heavy, thick, suffocating. Sasuke's shocked expression hardened in an instant, his eyes turning to icy obsidian chips. Naruto wheeled around and fled the basement, disappearing through the wall and soaring up to the attic in the mansion, which had become his sort of 'room', his haven whenever he wanted to be truly alone in utter silence. He discovered, floating there, that for the first time in years, it wasn't only Sakura's angry green eyes that haunted his vision, but another pair as dark, as black, as night…

Those obsidian shards stared at him from every shadowed corner.

Downstairs, Sasuke shook his head, hauling himself to his feet and dusting off his jeans, steeling his mind against Naruto's parting words. He _had_ been awfully harsh…but that was the only way to knock someone out of their stupid self-pity, right?

Right.

_Then why_, the ebony-haired teen asked himself as he ascended the wooden basement steps and then the iron-railed stairs, trekking towards his bed in what he knew would be a sleepless night, _did he feel so god damn guilty?_

**›››››_ If only your smile wasn't so fake_****‹‹‹‹‹**__

His eyes slid over neat rows of printed text, word after word after word, marching in straight lines across the page, broken here and there by a picture or a diagram. But try as he might to focus on the page, the mesmerizing effect the lines usually had on him simply wouldn't take over. Sasuke sighed in frustration, brushing raven bangs away from his eyes. Today simply was not god damn working for the teen, and he desperately needed all the studying he could get. Well, not really, and though Sasuke himself would never admit it, his subconscious had the I-will-get-an-A-or-die-trying mentality. So, he studied a lot, did well in school, and attracted the attention of his teachers and quite a few girls.

He had gotten so good at ignoring people in general he could open a book and lose himself in it in a matter of seconds. But today, no amount of studying could be accomplished, simply because his mind was somewhere else.

_"S-Shut up! I HATE YOU, SASUKE!"_

For the third time that morning, the desk happily greeted its new best friend, that being Sasuke's forehead, as he whacked his head into the wooden surface repeatedly. He had no freakin' clue why the hell he was dwelling on the dobe's words. If anyone else had told them they hated him (a lot of people actually did, mostly jealous boys and angry boyfriends; even a couple of girlfriends), he would've just brushed it off with the blink of an eye and a cold glare that could scare anyone shitless. But this was Naruto, not some nameless stranger he couldn't remember.

And that made all the difference.

Sasuke sighed and stared absently at the untouched sheet of paper that sat in front of him, his pencil finding its way to the surface, making a few experimental strokes. From those a web of sleek silver lines grew as Sasuke sketched away, suddenly absorbed in this sudden artistic bout; surprised at himself for doodling so mindlessly, even more surprised at the subject of said doodle.

The dulled pencil tip traced the curve of Naruto's cheek, pausing before slashing on the whisker scars. He drew his golden-yellow hair dipping into his closed eyes, covering his forehead in shadows, the rest of the spikes slightly more tamed then their usual wildness; every crease and rustle in his garish clothing with precision only an professional could do. The form of the ghost boy, sound asleep, took shape on the paper, his normally excited face calmed and serene, as the raven-haired teen added some heavy shading and few highlights to give it the pretense of night. Sasuke suddenly snapped out of his stupor, blinking with confusion at the drawing that laid in front of him.

What the hell was wrong with him?

Sasuke wasn't sure he knew himself anymore. That alone scared the teen more then he was willing to admit. He picked up his eraser, ready the wipe away the image, if there hadn't been…

"Oi, Sasuke?"

Sasuke jumped and hastily hid the sketch in his history book, slamming the cover shut and whirling around in his chair as Naruto emerged from the wall behind him, looking thoroughly embarrassed and sounding lot more quiet then from his usual "Hey! Uchiha-bastard!" greeting.

"Err…what?"

Naruto scratched his head, eyes avoiding Sasuke's, before he sat cross-legged on his bed and sighed. "Umm…I kinda wanted to…uh…apologize."

The world was coming to an end!

Sasuke arched one charcoal eyebrow, arm coming up to rest on the top of his chair. Naruto? Apologize? In all the time he'd known the ghost (which wasn't long, truthfully) he had never heard Naruto utter anything close to a 'apology', and looked about as sorry as the damned cat that ate the whole fucking pet store. It was one of those 'what the fuck?' moments, in which silence weighed heavily upon the occupants of the room, before Sasuke prompted, "Go on…"

"Um, yeah. I'm sorry for, like, blowing up on you…" Naruto mumbled, his eyes finally meeting Sasuke's. "…and yelling at you…and…umm…" And then his wonderful attention-span-of-a-goldfish-memory gave out. Brilliant timing, no?  
  
"Accepted." Sasuke waved a hand absently as he turned back to his desk, though besides picking up his pencil he made no other move to actually work. The sketch remained trapped in the pages of the history textbook, and he knew Naruto would pester him to death if he found out he drew him. Annoyance was the last thing Sasuke needed, on top of the fact he couldn't really explain _why_ he drew Naruto in the first place.

Naruto stared at his back for a moment in utter disbelief, before his usual grin made itself at home on his face. "Hey, Sasuke?"  
  
"What?"

"You never told me about you." Naruto floated on over to Sasuke's desk, a bit disappointed the teen had nothing besides a pile of books placed on its surface, as he had no particular interest in snooping through some stupid old book (which he probably couldn't read anyway).

Sasuke twitched. Good ol' Naruto was back. "No."  
  
"C'mon, I spilled my damn guts to you!" Naruto whined, 'sitting' on the edge of the desk and pouting.

"No." Sasuke rolled his eyes and pulled a folder towards himself, flipping through a few of the papers stuck inside before studying one thoughtfully. _Write a paper on the beginnings of your home town or city. Include details about life from that age, political, social, and economical aspects, and provide a detailed analysis of how the society may have had an impact on life today._ Damn history essays to hell. Then something clicked in Sasuke's brain… "Hey, Naruto…"  
  
"Whaaaat?" Naruto looked up from picking through Sasuke's bookshelf, searching for something of interest.  
  
"What was Old Konoha like?"  
  
"Old Konoha?" Naruto frowned, his face scrunched up in thought for a moment before he snapped his fingers. "Oh! You mean my village! It was—wait a sec, how come you get to ask _me_ questions but I can't ask _you?_"

Score for Naruto for questions he _really_ didn't want to answer. "Why the hell d'ya wanna know about my past anyway?" He asked irritably, glaring at the spirit.

Naruto shrugged. "Dunno. You know all about me, I don't know anything about you." Sasuke interested Naruto, especially after the escapade in the basement. The raven-haired teen aroused his curiosity, though Naruto didn't really know why he wanted to know everything he could about him. _And it's not god damn fair he can weasel my frickin' past out but I can't ask about his!_ The ghost-boy mentally added, if only to justify the fact he didn't have a reason.

Naruto is not alone, though. Everybody's curious about the Uchiha.

And yet, very little is known about the Uchiha family. All people _do_ know from their two sons is that they're stoic, almost criminally pretty boys, and they have this freaky technique of making their eyes turn red.

"What if I don't _want_ to tell you anything?"  
  
"Then I'll make your life living hell!" Naruto responded quite happily, an almost maniacal glint lighting his sky-blue eyes.

Sasuke suppressed a shudder, sighing in irritation as he focused on death-glaring Naruto. The evil eye had no effect on the bouncy ghost (Sasuke glared, he grinned, and the drama was lost), and he soon gave up. "If it'll make you go away, fine. What do you want to know?"

"Ha-HAH! The ice prince melts!" Naruto snickered as Sasuke's hands twitched in longing to wrap themselves around Naruto's neck, had he one. Naruto never failed to be able to piss him off to no ends like no one else could. "Right-o. So…why _are_ you living alone, not counting my endearing presence?"

"I study better alone." Twitch.

"Okay, so…what, are you an only child?"  
  
"No." Naruto blinked as Sasuke ground out the word angrily, the pencil held in his shaking hand jerking across the desk's smooth surface and leaving a shallow dent in its wake. Judging by that reaction, the next question would be a really stupid maneuver, but…well, fuck that. Naruto was about as good with tact as an freakin' bull in a china shop or whatever the damn quote was.

"Brother?"  
  
"Not talking." Sasuke clamped his mouth shut, attempting to calm his furious shaking as his eyes trained to the jagged lines he was creating, then lifted the pencil away and tried to keep himself from hurling it into the wall. Families were not good subjects to speak of in front of Uchiha Sasuke, particularly brothers. He couldn't blame Naruto—well, he could, actually—for being curious, but he swore if he asked any more…

"Why not—argh!"

The pencil in Sasuke's grip snapped in half with such violence the top half went flying (through Naruto, who squawked), wooden splinters spilled on the desk, and crushed shards of led dug into the raven-haired teen's palm. "I _said,_ I don't want to talk about it," he hissed, voice riddled with venom. Sasuke dumped the remains of the writing utensil in the gray trashcan that stood by his desk, eyes so narrowed in anger he could hardly see through the obsidian orbs.

He had forced himself not to think of that fucking bastard Uchiha Itachi. The teen had suffered years trying to wipe his elder brother from his mind, and having finally succeeded, would prefer to keep it that way—forcefully forgotten. But it didn't stop the occasional nightmares, and sometimes Sasuke would still wake up in the middle of the night, tangled in his sheets; soaked with cold sweat, wondering just what the _fuck_ he was doing still living and having to put up with it all, face streaked with trails of tears.

Those were the times he hated himself the most.

Naruto's own baby blue eyes narrowed as he accepted the unspoken challenge. "And _I_ do," the ghost answered, using his very best commanding tone.

Sasuke seethed, glaring dangerously at the ghost boy. "Well, tough luck," he snarled at Naruto, who, for a moment, looked briefly shocked at the poison in his tone. "I've never told anyone before, so what makes you think I want to spout all my emotional problems to some stupid, annoying ghost?!"

No answer. And…

Cerulean narrows slightly, and the ghost of a smile slips onto the translucent teen's face. "Well, despite the fact you were a demanding bastard at the time, I felt like I could tell you about Sakura…" He trailed off, though his gaze never wavered; "…Don't you feel the same?"

"_No_."

"Liar." Naruto stuck his tongue out in a half-hearted attempt to lighten the atmosphere, then stopped as Sasuke cranked up another notch on the death glare.

Though, unfortunately for the raven-haired teen, whether he was willing to admit it or not, Naruto was quite correct. Wasn't that the reason he hadn't asked Iruka and Kakashi to forcefully get rid of Naruto then? He'd never let anyone get this close to him before—no one. And he had felt guilty after Naruto had fled the basement—and Uchiha Sasuke _never_ felt god damned guilty! Sasuke sighed in irritation and silently fumed, before grinding out through his teeth; "_Fine_. I had a brother."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious."

Glare. "Who wanted to know about my fucking family?"

Naruto—0

Sasuke—2

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Like I said…" The onyx-eyed teen muttered lowly, "I had a brother. His name is—was—Itachi."

Naruto noted the _was_; that meant either this Itachi dude was dead or had mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth. While he found the speculating the second option far more amusing, Naruto nodded for the other boy to continue.

"So. That bastard…was a genius. Straight A's in school, had girls falling all over him, student body president, star of the soccer team and Martial Arts club; generally, everybody thought he was god damned perfect."

"Oh, so I'm guessing you were always the inferior little brother and everybody looked down on you with something like 'Why can't you be like _Itachi?_'? Hey, there was that one dude I met who, like, got nailed in the head with a kunai cause he wasn't as good as—"

"Shut up, Naruto," Sasuke half-shouted in exasperation as the spirit began rambling, "Or you can get your ass out of here, because if I remember correctly, dobe, you're the one that wanted the stupid story in the first place!" He nearly smirked at Naruto's sullen expression as the foxy teen fell silent, if the gravity of the situation didn't feel like it was weighing down his entire body. He wondered what the _hell _he was doing; he never shared Itachi's secret, because it had been a promise between two brothers before the younger was betrayed. Maybe that was why he hated Itachi so much—he couldn't bring himself to truly, _truly_ hate the bastard he once dearly loved. And if he tried to forget, the weight of that secret left a scar in his heart. "Anyway… Then some twisted jack ass named Orochimaru got involved, and Itachi fell in with the bad crowd."

"Eh?"  
  
"Drugs, alcohol, and all that other wonderful junk. Itachi kept it a secret from Mom and Dad, because they'd be absolutely furious if they found out their _perfect_ son," Sasuke bit the comment out scathingly, an almost disgusted expression twisting his pale face, "…was hanging around in a mob of failures. Itachi, for once, was an idiot, and came home with a buddy or two of his, since they were high in the sky—they didn't get caught, but I saw them. Itachi made me promise not to tell.

That didn't matter though, cause Mom found out when one of the dip shits left a heroin needle in Itachi's room. They started fighting and went on railing at each other for three freakin' hours. They went on about how awful drugs were, and how dare he keep secrets from him, and the horrible friends he was making—and Itachi snapped. He got sick of being the perfect child and yelled something about wanting his freedom—which only led them to try to ban Itachi from setting foot outside school or home without their permission first… That really got Itachi…" Sasuke's face grew dark with an angry scowl, and though his heart squeezed painfully, he chuckled hollowly. "...he killed them."

"W—_what_?" The spirit's eyes grew distant for a moment; he heard something along the lines of this before. A friend he had as a child, a introspective, quiet little boy (trust Naruto's memory to not be able to remember his name), whose parents refused to trust him with anything, and all their faith lay in their older brother. After a raging fit, the elder of the two disowned himself from their family, and the kid's parents took all their fury out on the kid. After that, he turned into a nervous wreck that continuously cried at the slightest mention of his elder brother or the responsibility he was _supposed_ to be shouldering.

Now, he heard that story a thousand times, and it didn't bother _that_ much—he hadn't really known the boy—but what deeply disturbed Naruto was the fact Sasuke could more or less rattle off the same tale, and _laugh._ Fucking _laugh_.

He had parents, didn't he? Naruto had never had anyone who cared for him. He simply couldn't understand how anyone could be so uncaring.

And—and—he said he never told anyone before. So now, as the normally hyperactive spirit stared dully into Sasuke's onyx eyes, he wondered—_Doesn't he know jack shit about families? You're not supposed to be god damn laughing, you asshole! Don't they mean more then that to you?!_

"So there. You heard it. Now get out." Against his will, his voice trembled with the last couple of words, and he felt close to ramming his head into the poor, unsuspecting desk yet again. That sounded pathetic, and the last thing Sasuke needed was for Naruto to use this against him. _He wouldn't do that_, his own sense whispered to him. But—but—god damn! He was Naruto! Stupid, annoying, naive, Naruto—and—and—god damnit, why couldn't he force himself to hate the dobe? He had trusted Itachi with everything, had always run to his big, strong older brother when he was upset. And Itachi was always there, calm, quiet, and supportive. _And then the it's off to go slaughter the family, shall we_? Irony laughed cruelly in the ebony-haired teen's mind.

The last person he trusted destroyed something precious to him.

He told himself, day after day, year after year, trust was something useless.

So why did he, against every god damned fiber of his being, feel like he could trust Naruto?

"No, thanks."

"Then at least be quiet, dobe. I'm trying to study." The relief Sasuke felt at finally leaving the bitter subject wasn't voiced; only his normal indifferent tone that managed to piss Naruto off and sooth his qualms about Sasuke's sanity.

"But that'd be against the code of conduct," Naruto whined and promptly turned to prod at Sasuke's history book if it were possible. "By the way, I saw you slam your book shut or something…you're hiding something, huh?!"

Twitch. "No."

A teasing grin lighted his face now. "Aww, c'mon, lemme just take a peek?"  
  
"_No_." He answered even more vehemently then before.

"Too late." The cover of his history book glowed the sky-blue hue of Naruto's eyes as the ghost boy focused his on the book's spirit energy, the cover dangerously wobbling before flying open and pages shooting after it.

Sasuke's eyes widened, and before he even thought about it his hand shot out and wrenched the cover shut, slamming the text book closed with such force he nearly dented it. At the same time, the aura the book gave off abruptly vanished and Naruto let out a howl of pain.

"God—damnit—don't _do_ that!"

"Huh?" Sasuke blinked.  
  
Naruto furiously massaged his temples, glaring at Sasuke balefully. "Y'know, for me to move things in the real world takes a lot of energy. For something with a little bit of spirit energy, like a book, I have to put in a piece of my own energy to make it move. And when you fucking slam your fist into it—" He gestured with one limp hand to Sasuke's arm, which rested on the unfortunate hard cover, "It feels like I just got bricked in the frickin' forehead."

Sasuke snickered and Naruto glared at him. "Shit happens."

"Bastard."  
  
"Thanks."

**›››››_ I would ask you to be my sunshine_****‹‹‹‹‹**__

Hours later found a rather sleepy Sasuke leaning back in his chair, yawning as he slipped his essay away into his notes. After he laughed at Naruto's expense for a good three minutes, he roped the spirit into practically doing his essay for him by providing all the answers. It still took time to write the paper, and though it was a lot less stressful then before, he was still tired from the day's events. The raven-haired boy slid from his chair to plop on his bed and roll to his side, breathing the soapy scent of the detergent the sheets had been recently washed in.

So warm. So comfortable. The world grew hazy and he yawned again, now not even bothering to think; nothing else mattered, except the soft, comfortable sheets…

"Oi, done, 'suke?"

"Shut up," Sasuke muttered, cracking open one eye to stare at Naruto, who floated over him far closer then he would've liked. "Gaara was high, the idiot makes no sense when he drinks... Hnn…" He rolled over, stuffing his face in his pillow.

"You're going to suffocate if you do that, _'suke_," Naruto cheerfully added, completely disregarding the teen's words. Sasuke half-heartedly glared at Naruto; he just couldn't sum up the energy to argue with him right now, though he briefly wondered what would happen if he tried to throw a pillow at him.

"Hnn."

"Is that all you can say?"  
  
"…"

Naruto rolled his eyes, then turned to go through the wall and wreck havoc in the kitchen, maybe bang a few pots and pans together. Sasuke wasn't doing anything interesting now, which meant something like he wasn't doing anything that Naruto could jump in and ruin. The ghost floated away from the bed, when—

"…Don't go…" His voice was slightly slurred, quiet, sounding almost dreamy, clearly indicating that Sasuke was half-asleep.

Naruto blinked and turned around. "Uh…okay…" The orange-clad spirit floated on back, propping himself on the corner of Sasuke's desk, feet resting on the foot board. "Why?"

Sasuke blinked sleepily, too lazy to find an answer somewhere in his hazy brain even if there had been one.

"…I don't know."

Naruto blinked again but remained silent as Sasuke promptly fell asleep. He had no doubts that, next morning, if he used this situation against the older teen, he'd deny all of it, but… It was good enough for him right now. He snickered at how the stoic teen would react if he recounted how perfectly _innocent_ and angelic he looked when he was sleeping. His raven bangs fringed his face, dark lashes fluttering close, ebony spikes pooling behind his head; the normally indifferent or strained expression smoothed out, Sasuke's almost vampire-pale skin looking so soft, so _smooth_…

…What the _crap_ was he thinking?

Naruto hurriedly looked away, before remembering his earlier mission: find whatever Sasuke was hiding. With a barely suppressed snicker of glee, he rolled over to the history book and concentrated on the pages again. This time, unhindered, the leaves flew open and stopped to where a sheet of notebook paper was hastily folded and shoved inside. Naruto forced the paper to leap out of the book and unfold itself, the creases smoothing out and flattening themselves to reveal—

Him?

Naruto stared at his discovery, the back of his mind noting that Sasuke was, indeed, a very good artist. The image of the fox-carrying spirit was accurate right down to the whisker marks and looked incredibly realistic. The pencil he had drawn with was apparently dulled with a reason, the granite tip splaying out lines in a smooth, almost fading manner, which mirrored his ghost-properties very well. What intrigued him was that Sasuke hadn't even drawn him with the huge grin he normally wore, whether or not he felt it—like Sasuke could see straight through him. And no, not in a god damned literal sense.

He didn't know how long he stared at the image, but…

…it stirred something in his heart.

**›››››**_ **In a sea of monochromatic days** _**‹‹‹‹‹**__

The wind raced through the open windows to the room, causing the curtains to flap in the breeze. A few pages of the textbook flipped as the gentle wind softened even more and came to rest with the raven-haired teen who lay, still fast asleep, in the twilight. It doubled back to the table, stopping to examine a piece of notebook paper it had caused to flap up before fading away.

The image wasn't alone anymore.

Besides the sleeping Naruto, a new person had been drawn in; very carefully, in sharp but smooth lines, one Uchiha Sasuke sat there besides Naruto in the picture, drawn in proud, bold lines. Sasuke sat with his back leaned against a wall, supporting himself, though he'd been drawn in besides the fox spirit so that the blonde's head barely touched his shoulder. The lines were the tiniest bit shaky, the shading not as fine nor the details as accurate, but it showed a few hours of work someone had taken to painstakingly lift a pencil and trace it to the paper.

Though the sky was vivid with pinkish-gold and blood red hues, around that faded sketch the world's harsh colors seemed to drain into shades of gray. For that moment in time, as one teen remained slumbering soundly for the first time in his life, and a ghost sat in his attic feeling happier then he had been when he still was alive, reality wasn't quite so harsh, and the truth lay there in plain black and white.

**›››››_ If only your smile wasn't colorless… _‹‹‹‹‹**__

**A/N:** And that brings Act 2 to a close. It's so tempting to end the whole story right there, but that would throw off the other lovely ending I had in mind... Anyway…I hope that was still satisfactory. Tried to dump in a tiny bit o' fluff...Hnn.

Sinful also apologizes for that—what, two weeks?—it took her to finally write Act 2. So—REVIEW TIME! Rejoice!

feathergurl—Hey Morgan! I'm glad you like it…sorry it took so long? xD

Zoey Lives—Yup, tension, because everybody loves weak cliff hangers! –shot- Anyway, thank. .

Closet-Monsters—Haha, closet monsters. X3 I get what you're saying, I rather dislike it when people write AU that are totally out of characters…thanks for the review!

bishihuntress –Thanks for the link and the review, twas fun reading all that lovely doujinshi.

Silent Lucidity—Thank you. D  
  
ririka—That was the idea. xD My friend and I even made up a song to go with it—"No noodles for Naruto!"—Then our science teacher looked at us like we were insane…Which is quite possible. Thanks.  
  
Bishiehuggler –Yeah, doesn't paranormal stuff rock? Thanks for the review.

inu-chan 613—Heh, unfortunately there's going to be quite a bit less fighting from here…but I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter.

Mister Pineapple—The idea of the ghost thing isn't quite so original, but your review still makes me feel all warm and fluffy. x3 Sankyuu!

HikariChang—xD. Thanks for your review(s).

daflippnay—Gaara makes me laugh. Funky gourd thingy on his back. 3

Ravyn-09—Hope you liked this chapter, it was more angsty then I would've liked, but…hnn. Thank you!

min-chan—Here's your update? xD;;; Thanks muchly!

Teki Star—Sankyuu!

Yuen-chan—-cowers- Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. xD

KageKitsune16—Thanks for the kind words. On a side note, I love your fanfiction too.

Cknoakira—Thank you

Hieisbestbuddy888—Thank you. I'll try and do my best!

Fuzzy Eyebrows—Thank you! I love writing AU fics…It doesn't seem like a lot of people do for the Naruto fandom, or I'm just blind. Hah.

Jiro—Thanks, sorry I wasn't quicker. .; At any rate, I love your fanfics as well, and I feel kinda honored to be reviewed. xD

Chaotic Demon—Yeee-up. As said, Gaara makes me laugh. xD

Meow—You sound just like me. O-o Hi, long-lost-twin-sister? xD Thanks for the review and…enjoy your chocolate?

eyes0nme19—Thank you!

hogo-chan—Aww, thanks. Sorry I wasn't faster.

Sweetnlilly –Hey Lily! I didn't you wrote either…o-O G'luck with all your fics, n' thanks.

Someone—Hah. So the secret of Haruno Sakura has been revealed! Thanks for the review.

flare2—Thank you!

Phew. N' that's all.

Anyway… another decently long chapter, I guess, has quite a bit of action too… So that's all have to say, folks. You can check my profile to status updates on the next chapter, and sooner or later I'll add a snippet of Act 3. Leave a comment or two and thanks for you time!

-Sinful Serenity

_Have you heard that melody_

_"Please don't take my sunshine away"…?_

_I would so wholeheartedly agree_

_If only your smile wasn't so fake._

_I would ask you to be my sunshine_

_In a sea of monochromatic days_

_If only your smile wasn't colorless…_

**. BLACK . AND . WHITE . SMILE .**


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